MGMIMass Gathering Medicine

← Library

AI-DRAFTED — PHYSICIAN REVIEW IN PROGRESSThe citation for this entry was checked against Crossref and PubMed, but its summary and interpretation were drafted by an AI model from the published abstract and have not yet been individually read by a physician. Read the linked source before relying on this operationally.
Paper ✓ verified

Retrospective Study for the Safer Management for Citizens' Marathon: A Medical Support Perspective[1]

Ogawa F, Nakayama R, Nakayama Y, Yuasa Y, Kamagata T, Takahashi K, Furuya R, Imaki S, Takeuchi I · 2025 · Cureus

Summary

Descriptive epidemiological retrospective study of medical incidents at the Yokohama Citizens' Marathon from the introduction of its full-marathon distance in 2015 through 2024, tracking the case-mix (cardiac arrest, heat stroke, muscle cramps and other conditions) alongside the year-on-year evolution of the event's medical-support system. Across 134,946 full-marathon participants (147,861 total runners), 4,669 medical staff were deployed (3.1% +/- 0.4% of runners). Over the decade there were 136 emergency transports (mean annual rate 0.1% of runners, range 0.05-0.2%), 27 hospitalisations (0.02%, range 0.01-0.03%) and 3 cardiac arrests (0.002%, range 0-0.004%). The patient presentation ratio (PPR) averaged 14.76 per 1000 runners annually (range 11.1-17.7) and the transport-to-hospital ratio (TTHR) averaged 0.96 per 100 patient presentations annually (range 0.4-2.1). The authors report that annual analysis and consequent protocol updates were associated with a lower PPR and a stable TTHR versus earlier reports, and conclude that continuous, data-driven adjustment of medical protocols improves safety - with minor illness dominating the load but rare cardiac arrest driving the need for meticulous planning.

So what

A decade-length single-event dataset that does two useful things for the library: it supplies concrete marathon benchmark ratios (PPR ~14.76/1000, TTHR ~0.96 per 100 presentations, transports ~0.1% of runners, cardiac arrest ~0.002%) that sit alongside the Milan Pride and Leavers figures as a growing set of real presentation-rate reference points, and it makes the continuous-improvement argument explicitly - annually reviewing the data and updating protocols tracked with a falling PPR and a stable TTHR over ten years. That is the quantitative case for treating the medical plan as a living document reviewed after every edition, not a fixed annex, and it dovetails with the disposition-power and needs-assessment material (staffing at ~3% of runners, most incidents minor and managed on course, a tiny but decisive cardiac-arrest tail that justifies the whole apparatus). It also complements the cardiac/AED shelf: the rare arrests are the reason the mostly-minor system exists. Caveats: single event/city, retrospective record review, published in a lower-tier journal, and the "lower than previous reports" comparison is descriptive rather than standardised - cite for the benchmark ratios and the iterate-annually lesson, not as a controlled intervention result.

Key findings

  • Yokohama Citizens' Marathon, 2015-2024; 134,946 full-marathon participants (147,861 total runners)
  • Medical staffing 4,669 (3.1% +/- 0.4% of runners); most incidents minor illness
  • Benchmarks: PPR ~14.76/1000 (11.1-17.7); TTHR ~0.96 per 100 presentations (0.4-2.1); transports ~0.1% of runners
  • 136 transports, 27 hospitalisations (0.02%), 3 cardiac arrests (0.002%) over the decade
  • Annual data review + protocol updates tracked with a FALLING PPR and stable TTHR - the medical plan as a living, iterated document

Read the paper